Showing results by narrator "John Burlinson" in All Categories

Rosmersholm is a play surrounding the deep and intense political and cultural change in Norway in the middle of the 1880s, a period during which the traditional ruling class were forced to relinquish their right to impose their ideals on the rest of society. We follow Johannes Rosmer, a pastor who has resigned from his position; Rebecca West, a woman who sees Rosmer's potential and believes she can help him to realize his dream of creating a world of "happy, noble people"; and Headmaster Kroll, Rosmer's former best friend.

After the death of their father, Oedipus, Antigone and Ismene return to Thebes. The ruler is their unyielding uncle by marriage, Creon, who assumed command after the death of the sons of Oedipus, Eteocles, and Polynices in a fratricidal struggle to take control of the city. Creon has the body of one brother buried with full civic honors but forbids the burial of the body of the other, whom he regards as a traitor. Antigone's challenge to Creon's decree, which she considers unjust, results in the extinction of the family line of Oedipus.

Although he achieved notable success as a novelist, poet, essayist, and painter, August Strindberg is best known today as one of the first and most significant masters of naturalist theatre. Among his many dramatic works are a number of one-act plays, four of which are presented in this recording. All of the plays feature a persistent theme in Strindberg's works: the inevitable disillusion that results from intense involvement in relationships, whether they be familial, romantic or circumstantial.

In this volume we meet the novelist, Felix Kennaston, who lives in parallel worlds. One of these is with his wife in their suburban Virginia home and genteel society. The other is with the beautiful Lady Ettarre, who shares his travels through space and time to meet, among many others, Oliver Cromwell, Napoleon, and the Emperor Tiberius. Lusty and magical, romantic and rueful, subtly erotic and laced with sardonic humor, this absorbing book is highly regarded as a masterwork of Fantasy literature.

R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) is a science-fiction drama that was first presented in Czech in 1921. It introduced the term "robot", which is derived from a Czech word meaning "worker," to international vocabulary. The action opens in a factory that has successfully produced thousands of robots, who are essentially mindless drones. An idealistic humanitarian activist launches a plan to imbue some of the robots with human traits. The robots which have been humanized then assume leadership over the other robots and seek to organize them in a revolution to take over the world.

Moby Dick, which has been considered the great American novel, was first published in 1851. For material, Melville drew on his experience on whaling ships between 1841 and 1844, the sinking of the whaling vessel Essex in 1820, and extensive perusal of literature on whaling and many other subjects.

The Swedish playwright August Strindberg was one of the founding fathers of naturalistic theater. A feature of many of his plays is the minute dissection of attitude and motivation by individuals within tightly bound groups. As in the present drama, such relentless inspection of behavior often has drastic consequences. Thekla, married to the needy Adolf, has a surprise encounter with her former husband, the lordly Gustav. Or is it really a surprise?

As the generating force of its plot, Twelfth Night uses a device which has since become a staple in comedy: gender confusion. Viola and her twin brother Sebastian, are shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria, a country ruled by the melancholy Duke Orsino. The twins are separated and Viola is led to believe that her brother has perished. She disguises herself as a male under the name of Cesario and makes her way to the ducal court, where Orsino employs her as a messenger, to communicate his love to the reclusive lady, Olivia—who is not willing to return his affection.

Leonid Andreyev was one of the major literary artists at the turn of the 20th century and is widely regarded as perhaps the most talented and prolific representative of the "Silver Age" period of Russian literature. The Seven Who Were Hanged is considered by many to be his masterpiece.

The collection contains eight of Shakespeare’s best loved comedies. Each exhibits the vigour, humour, and optimism of the young master before he turned to the gloom and bitterness of the great tragedies.

Six months ago, Ellie was a newlywed, working the dry land in 1880s Texas. Then the desperados came. They raped her and killed her husband, leaving her for dead. But she hunted them down and, along the way, found an inner strength and relentless determination that no man can match. Ellie thought the killing was over, that she'd put her guns away for good to run a ranch that she'd inherited from a legendary Texas Ranger. She was wrong.

In Speaking with the Dead in Early America, historian Erik R. Seeman undertakes a 300-year history of Protestant communication with the dead. Seeman chronicles the story of Protestants' relationships with the deceased from Elizabethan England to puritan New England and then on through the American Enlightenment into the middle of the nineteenth century with the explosion of interest in Spiritualism. He brings together a wide range of sources to uncover the beliefs and practices of both ordinary people, especially women, and religious leaders.

When the Revolutionary War began, Congress established a national army and appointed George Washington its commander in chief. Congress then took it upon itself to choose numerous subordinate generals to lead the army’s various departments, divisions, and brigades. How this worked out in the end is well known.

Much Ado About Nothing appears to have been written about 1599, shortly before As You Like It and Twelfth Night. The action combines two narrative threads: the spirited comedy of the courtship of Benedick and Beatrice, and the somber tale of confused love between Hero and Claudio. The first is a creation by Shakespeare and the second appears to have been drawn from an Italian source, either by Bandello or Ariosto. The action takes place in Messina. Eponymous lovers Hero and Claudio seem to be ideally matched and nearly everyone is looking forward to their impending marriage.

This collection of 10 classic tales is very representative of Wharton's approach to story-telling - in the narrative, the venue becomes a character almost as much as do the people. Situations are presented in an elegantly understated way, and the overall effect is disturbing rather than blatantly horrific.

Andy Adams is one of the few writers of the American West who had knowledge based on experience that enabled him to record cowboy life authentically. In the early 1880s, at the age of 20, Adams traveled to Texas and remained there for 10 years, eight of which he spent trail driving, becoming a foreman before he left the trail in 1890. Because he knew the real West, he was able to write with remarkable legitimacy - a quality he maintained without compromise, making him an honest interpreter of Western culture.

In Dying to Learn, Michael Hunzeker develops a novel theory to explain how wartime militaries learn. He focuses on the Western Front, which witnessed three great-power armies struggle to cope with deadlock throughout the First World War. Through careful study of the British, French, and German experiences, the book provides a model that shows how a resolute focus on analysis, command, and training can help prepare modern militaries for adapting amidst high-intensity warfare in an age of revolutionary technological change.

Every politically sentient American knows that Congress has been dominated by special interests, and many people do not remember a time when Congress legislated in the public interest. In the 1960's and 70's, however, lobbyists were aggressive but were countered by progressive senators and representatives, as several books have documented. What has remained untold is the major behind-the-scenes contribution of entrepreneurial Congressional staff, who planted the seeds of public interest bills in their bosses' minds and maneuvered to counteract the influence of lobbyists.

Oedipus the King is the story of a man whose life is destroyed by his own good intentions. When a terrible secret from his past is brought to the light of day, the consequences are chilling - and ineluctable.

The Gettysburg Campaign and its culminating battle have generated more than their share of analysis and published works. In My Gettysburg, Civil War scholar and 26-year Gettysburg resident Mark Snell goes beyond the campaign itself to explore the culture of the battlefield. In this fascinating collection, Snell provides an intriguing interpretation of some neglected military aspects of the battle.